Safety-check



P. C. LONGMESSEH.

SAFETY CHECK.

APPLicmoN FILED APR.|2,1921.

Patented Sept. 13, 1921.

'Jo/0 g,

'practically unaffected.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. 4

PAUL C. LONGMESSER' OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA., ASSIGNOR T0 WILLIAM MAN N COMPANY,VOF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENN- l sYLvANrA.

To all w hom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PAUL C. LoNGMEssER, a citizen of the United States, residing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have 'invented certain mprovements in Safety-Checks, of which the following is a specification.

. My invention relates to checks, drafts and like instruments such as are usually ymade by filling in blank forms; and my object is to afford safety against fradulent raising or other alteration of such instruments. For this purpose, I make essential portions of the instrument susceptible of readily detected deterioration or destruction by the measures employed in the attempt at alteration.

Checks are very commonly printed on paper with a safety surface of background, consisting of a .multiplicity of lines' or other markings Whose presence makes it easier to detect attempted altera tion of the significant matter or body of the check. This background is made in suitable tinted ink or color termed safety ink on account of its function in making the check safe against alteration; while the formal or identifying body matter is made in ordinary printing ink, which is of a different character from thesafety ink. In filling in the specific particulars of the check (such as the amount, name of payee, etc.) ink is used which necessarily differs either from that of the background or from that of the formal body matter,often from both.

In the attempt to raise or otherwise fraudulently alter such a check, the safety background may be wholly removed by means of suitably selected chemical agents which will leave the body of the checkboth the formal matter and the specific particulars Inthe absence of the safety background, alteration of the body of the check may be so cleverly executed as to escape detection; and the altered check will present the appearance of having been originally made on plain paper, without any safety background. 'l

In accordance with m invention, such fraudulent attempts may e baffled by making essential portions of the body of the check in ink of substantially the same character as the safety background, so as to be wholly obliterated or visibly aifectedby the agents employed to remove thebackground.,I

check, embodying my invention;

-Specicationef Letters Patent. Patented Sept, 13, 1921,

Application led April V12,

1921. serial No. 460,746.

' When the background and the formal matter of the blank check are both in ink of v the same safety character, the attempt to remove the background will be betrayed by the concurrent effect on the formal matter.

Total chemical obliteration of the formal matter alon with the background will leave the check without such essential portions as l the name of the bank drawn on, etc., thus virtually destroying its identity as a check.

Blank checks embodying my invention may have both the background Vand the formal body matter either in the same safety ink or in safety inks of different colors; and the background and the formal -matter may either be printed separately or together so as, in the latter case, to insure the closest identity of behavior under chemical reagents. The printing and the preparatory work may be done by various processes and methods well` understood by those skilled in the art.

' In the drawings, Figure l shows a bla Fig. 2 shows lsuch a check after filling in and being treated, over' a portion-of its surface, to remove its safety background.

In appearance, thecheck shown in Fig.4 1 does not differ essentially from ordinary checks at present in use.V However, its

formalbody portions are printed in safetyink, as well as itssafety background or surface,-which latter comprises many fine lines in such ink. The body portions may be either positively or negatively printed: z'. e., their letters, etc..N may be represented either directly by ink marks, or indirectly by shading or by mere omission of the lines 0r marks formin the safety background in certain places. oth methods are shown, the letters being formed (or at least outlined) in ink, and the horizontal lines for the date, signature and other special particulars of the checkbeing formed by mere omission of the background lines. Background lines and formal body matter may be printed together or separately, and in on'e and the same safety ink or in safety inks of different colors, as already stated.

Fig. 2 shows` the result of an attempt to alter the check of Fi 1 after the same has been filled in. ere the `right hand portion has been treated' withi a chemical agent (acid) which has removed the backwould remove. the rest of 5 tions, leavin the formal poronly the special particulars in the wor s John Doe $5G10T0U06, Five thousand vand ten and the signature of the maker of the check. n I claim: 10 Vil. A check having both background and printed matter in safety ink of the saine character.

2. A method of protecting checks which consists in printing the background of the check and the printed matter von the same 1n safety ink of the same general character, so

that chemicaL obliteratinn of the background will destroy the identifying matter and render the check valueless.

-PAUL C. LONGMESSER. 

